[Comment] Offline: Fibbing for God

September 9, 2015

The Lancet 386, 9997 (2015)

Author: Richard Horton

On Sept 11, the UK’s House of Commons votes on a Private Member’s Bill (tabled by Rob Marris MP) that would legalise assisted dying. According to Healthcare Professionals for Assisted Dying, a group that lobbies for a change to the law, “dying people should be able to control the manner and timing of their death if their suffering has become unbearable”. The forces against assisted dying, or assisted suicide as some critics prefer to call it, are formidable. The most high-profile campaigner against assisted dying is Ilora Finlay, professor of palliative care at Cardiff University, co-chair of Living and Dying Well, chair-elect of the National Council for Palliative Care, past-President of the British Medical Association (BMA), and a member of the BMA’s Medical Ethics Committee.